pulsus a mortuus equus

August 12, 2009 4:44 PM

I'm looking for a Latin translation of an American colloquialism (knowing that such translations are at best approximations/don't work because the idiom never existed in Latin.)

I'm hoping the hive mind can help translate this phrase (which I should stress refers to the poor treatment of horses back in the day) into Latin:

"Rode Hard and Put Away Wet"

I've spent some time with Latin translators and dictionaries and may have gotten part of the way there, but never having taken any Latin I'm sure it's crude at best. I found the verbs "equito" (to ride a horse,) and "repono" (to deposit or store) and the adjectives "severiter" (harshly) and "madidus" (wet/moist/damp.) So, my uninformed attempt to string these together comes out as:

"Equito Severiter Et Repono Ut Madidus"

Which, when run through a translator comes out to:

"To ride harshly and to deposit when wet"

Am I in the ballpark? I appreciate any refinements you scholarly types can offer.

posted by usonian to writing & language (5 comments total)

I think you want the Latin word for 'enstable' rather than 'deposit'... not that I know what that is, but the Romans were such horse nuts there must be a precise word for horse-storing. Maybe that'll nudge someone in the right direction, anyway.
posted by rokusan at 4:51 PM on August 12

I had the same thought, rokusan, but my Googlefu failed me at the time. 'repono' was the closest verb I was able to come up with.

Hmm, concentrating on the word 'stable' just turned up the verb 'stabulo' which definitely seems more correct:

Equito Severiter Et Stabulo Ut Madidus
posted by usonian at 5:01 PM on August 12

And if I'm reading your question correctly, what you want is the past participle, i.e., an adjectival form of the verb--like the SPOKEN word, the OPENED door etc. I would have said "ridden."

This is dimly recollected, but perhaps "equitus severiter et reponus ut madidus (umidus?)," given that equus is masculine. I agree you want to say "stable"--but stabulo is a noun, as far as I can tell.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 5:08 PM on August 12

For one thing, those are all nominative adjectives and first-person singular verbs, so what you have here is more like "I rode [something] harshly and stabled [it] as myself, the wet one" or something.

Equitatus erat severiter et madidus stabulatus est

That should mean, "It had been ridden hard and was stabled wet."

Caveat: I didn't remember how to make perfect passives offhand, but I did refer to a textbook I had close at hand, so that's at least something.
posted by Copronymus at 5:23 PM on August 12

Yes, past participle would be the most faithful translation. "Ridden" is correct, although I seemed to find more instances of the phrase using "Rode" - deliberately rustic, but not helpful for translation purposes.

And you're right again, Admiral Haddock; stabulo is the noun, stabulor is the verb:

II. Act., to stable or house cattle: "ut alienum pecus in suo fundo pascat ac stabulet", Varr. R. R. 1, 21.
posted by usonian at 5:23 PM on August 12